Europe for Visitors Blog

ABOVE: The Tom Tower at Christ Church College, Oxford.

Have you ever regretted not becoming a Rhodes Scholar? Here's a chance to rectify your omission: Sign up for The Oxford Experience, a one-week residential summer course for adults of all ages.

If you're feeling flush, you can enroll for multiple weeks, picking and choosing from more than 60 courses such as "The British Empire at War," "William the Conqueror," "Creative Writing," "The Golden Age of the Romanovs," "The Craft of the Opera Composer," "Understanding the Cosmos," "Oxford’s Medieval Jewish Quarter," "Enjoying the Cotswolds," "Introducing the Human Brain," "Spies in British Fiction," "Ireland’s Troubled Past," "The World of the Vikings," and "Paradise in an English Garden." Classes are small, with a maximum of 12 students each, and there are no exams, term papers, or grades.

You'll study at Christ Church College, which was founded by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525. Your accommodations will be in rooms where many of England's prime ministers, poets, and philosophers once lived, and you'll dine in the Tudor Hall (which was featured in several Harry Potter movies).

Most courses provide excursions to stately homes, cathedrals, museums and such, and on some afternoons tours of Christ Church and the city of Oxford are offered.  In the evening there are pub crawls, whisky tastings, displays of traditional Morris dancing, wine and croquet in the Masters’ Garden, and Evensong in the college chapel, which is also the Oxford Cathedral.  And, of course, there are always plays and concerts available in this “city of dreaming spires."

The Oxford Experience runs from July 6 to August 16, 2015 and costs £1,230 or US $1,989.  The price for a week's participation includes tuition, accommodations, evening entertainment and lectures, a welcome reception, and all meals—a full English breakfast, buffet lunch and delicious served three-course dinner. (There are extra charges for rooms with private bath and for excursions.)

The deadline for summer 2014 registration is May 1, 2014.  (Since courses are filling quickly, however, early registration is urged.) For more information, visit www.conted.ox.ac.uk/oxfordexperience, or write to The Oxford Experience, OUDCE, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA, U.K.

Source: Barbara Gilliam, BGPR 
Photo: istockphoto/DrJools